ONE Championship’s heavyweight titleholder, Arjan Bhullar is the open to the idea of moving down in weight for a fight with the current light-heavyweight and middleweight champion, Reinier De Ridder.
De Ridder recently expressed his desire to move up to heavyweight and dethrone Bhullar to become a three-weight world champion.
The first fighter of Indian descent to ever win an MMA world title has since responded to the notion of a fight with De Ridder during an interview with LowKickMMA’s Keelin McNamara.
“First of all, I call the shots on that on the side. He knows that the company knows that.” Bhullar said. “So, you know, he’s been mentioning my name to try to get some of that shine for sure and I don’t like giving it to people cause I never did that on my way up, so earn your way. Don’t start to mention my name in interviews and all that. You’re not gonna get a crack at me that way. I call the shots and maybe we do it at light heavyweight. Why would I give him a chance to come up?
“I’m the A-side. If that’s (a move to light-heavyweight) what we decide to do, we will do that. If we decide to do heavyweight, we will do that. It’s whatever we want, but getting another belt at a different weight to something that interests me. That intrigues me. It builds on my legacy, rather than just defending my belt.”
Despite being open to the fight Bhullar thinks De Ridder needs to make some title defences before it can actually happen.
“He’s got to defend. That’s the main thing .” Bhullar said. “Again, you want to be special? You want to stand out for me? Make a name for yourself, defend your titles and get some momentum and we’ll make it work.”
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